FIX for Stealing from the Future

Explanation

When anything, usually overspending, causes overbudgeting, and only when a user has money allocated in the future, pop up with a warning box and make the current TBB negative and red.  Instead of randomly pulling money from somewhere in the next month, the dialogue box can ask the user “Cover overbudgeting with money budgeted in _farthestmonthbudgeted_? or Cover overbudgeting with money from _thismonth_? or Undo overbudget?”

Choosing one of these could then prompt the Move Money Tool to kick in and ask the user to choose a category to deplete, including TBB, in the appropriate month.

If there is no future budgeting, there’s no need to have all the pop-up questions.  Just make the current month TBB negative.  The mobile app already does a good job prompting overspending with pop-ups, though, so a solution with a banner at the top (like on mobile) could be a good idea.

User Workflow Steps

1.     Overbudget

2.     Box or banner (like mobile) pops up saying “Hey, you’ve overbudgeted!”

   a.     “Cover overbudgeting with money from _thismonth_?”

   b.     “Cover overbudgeting with money budgeted in _farthestmonthbudgeted_?”

   c.      “Undo overbudgeting”

3.     If the user chooses a or b, open the Move Money Tool that has capability to take available money from the month chosen in any category, including TBB.

Developers Would Need to

Make the Move Money Tool with multiple month capability.  This is a logical extension of taking away walled months.  You could have a line (scrolling horizontally or drop-down for people who are budgeted many months in the future) just above the budget categories for months.  Obviously, only current and future months that are actually budgeted would need to be visible.   If you don’t want to scroll, you could just have the current month by default highlighted, and the last future month budgeted sitting next to it, available to be selected.  Selecting one would represent the available amounts for that month in the categories below, including TBB.

Make the box to pop up with these choices.

Other people have suggested putting a line in the header that is always visible, like the Toolkit has.  I am not sure that this fix would have been clear to me as a new user, so if anyone has a more elegant brainwave, please share!

Use Case

Multiple times (but three really impactful times) as a new user, I lost money within my budget because of the way it currently works.  The second and third times, I contacted support, and they very helpfully told how to fix the resulting situation.  I was most concerned with how I had gotten there in the first place, as the first two instances had caused me to spend hours and hours setting up procedures for me to triple check, from multiple perspectives in the program, every action I made.  I did not want to lose money in the budget again!!!  Support’s response was that I hadn’t budgeted for it, but I had (and had checks in place to ensure it!), and then the budgeted money disappeared.  I was really close to not having the money available, because I saw the other available categories and spent them, not realizing I was essentially overspent in the future.  For me, it meant I was behind on my financial goals as a result.  For others closer to the edge, it could have more dire results.

Right now,

·      I never budget in the future. 

·      I have a separate category for variable expenses for the following month that must be covered until my paycheck (once a month on the 15th) comes in. 

·      I release those funds and budget them appropriately once the month turns over. 

·      I have another separate category where I hold funds that I am building as I can to create the buffer that would allow me to live on last month’s (30-day old) money. 

·      I also release these when I budget for the following month. 

·      I cumbersomely use the move-money tool, which offers a narrow view of overspending, when I would like to split the overspend WAM among categories. 

It was easier to make those Rule #3 decisions when the month was truly a 0-sum budget, and I could see that I had $80 left to cover a purchase in Category 1 (because TBB was negative by $80), so I could take $30 from Category 2, $35 from Category 3, and *scroll, what else can I spare???*  $15 from Category 4.  Now, I have to do that calculation outside of the app.

Putting a fix in place would prevent the above loss of financial goals.  It would also mean I can relax on the stringent procedures of interaction I imposed so that it would never happen to me again.  It would help me meet my financial goals with ease and clarity because of a visible Rule #3 workflow.

Why YNAB, because the philosophy is the power, the software is the tool.

YNAB is supposed to help me develop my finances because it provides quality data to guide my spending decisions through my budget.  The lynchpins of the method are being 0-sum and envelope based.  The app should, and usually does, facilitate moving money among envelopes.

SFTF seems to be the other side of the red arrow feature that has been nixed.  If there is red in the future, I can’t trust my available amounts in the present. 

If I’m stable, that means I’m not reaching my savings goals because I accidentally overspent, then had to WAM from savings.

If I’m reactionary and have no savings, that means I could likely overdraft/increase debt when a bill comes through, thinking I have the money available, just to find out it was overspent somewhere else.

Importance, because not everything can actually be prioritized as ‘critical’

This is actually quite critical because of the consequences.

Increase in Move Money Tool’s Functionality

Move Money Between Months

Explanation

Make the Move Money Tool with multiple month capability. You could have a line within the dropdown box of the move money tool, just above the “Budget Categories,” for months to live, side by side.  The current month would be the default selected.  Only current and future months that are actually budgeted would need to be visible.   You could offer horizontal scrolling or drop-down for people who are budgeted many months in the future, or if you don’t want that complication, you could just have the current month by default highlighted, and the last future month budgeted sitting next to it, available to be selected.  Selecting one would represent the available amounts for that month in the categories below, including TBB.

Sample User Workflow Steps

1.     After budgeting in the future, realize a forgotten but necessary category in the current month.  That’s ok.  There’s money in the next month that can be used.

2.     Click on the forgotten category’s available pill to activate the Move Money Tool (even if it’s 0 – that’s new).

3.     Select the next month.

4.     Select the category that doesn’t need so much money yet (you can see the available amounts in the list in the tool).

5.     Type how much money you want to move.

Use Case

This is a logical extension of taking away walled months.  It allows users to move money from a specific category of a future month to a category in the current month, or vice-versa, without going through TBB and two MoveMoneyTool uses.  It is also a stepping stone to what is the best SFTF fix I’ve come across.

Why YNAB, because the philosophy is the power, the software is the tool.

Because YNAB decided to unwall the the months and allow the user to budget in the future, it makes sense that users should have the ability to use the Move Money tool to make adjustments among months after the initial budgeting has occurred.  This improvement on the MMT would optimize the efficiency of that workflow.  Also, see reasoning for the SFTF solution.

I see no need to be able to move money from a current or future month to a past month because that could get messy with trying to use income that may not have been present at that past time.  However, moving money to from a future month to a current month should be acceptable, because you obviously have the money right now, and are encouraged to place it in the future.  But, plans change and you may (but not by default) want to put it back in the current month for an emergency (not regular overspending that many people prefer to be WAMed in the current month).

Importance, because not everything can actually be prioritized as ‘critical’

Because this is a stepping stone to the optimal SFTF solution, I think it’s critical.

Committed Future Transactions

Explanation

When scheduling transactions, users may choose to indicate that this particular transaction should affect the appropriate category’s budget on a certain date (default now), but appear in the register as occurring on a future date.  This should not replace normal scheduled transactions that work as they do now.

When the user makes a repeating, thus scheduled, committed transaction, the date at which the transaction effects the budget should be chosen.  Some situations will call for “at month start” or “on specific date of month (in order to wait for paychecks)” or “on the 3rd Friday (in order to wait for paychecks).”  I don’t see the use case for “3 days before” or “1 week before,” but someone else might.

Just like there is a way to “enter now” for an impending transaction, there should be a way to “commit now” for looming committed or non-committed transactions.

When clicking on the “activity” column, committed transactions can either have the date they were committed (for ease of keeping recent transactions on top) or the actual date.  I don’t know which is best.  They should somehow be different from the transactions that have actually occurred – italics, highlighted, icon by the date. Maybe this could be a calendar with a check mark inside? or a C inside? or an arrow?  I think the checkmark would speak to most people without explanation.

In the account register, they should sort by the date of occurrence, not the date of commitment.

User Workflow

Creation

1.     Click “new transaction” in the appropriate account.

2.     Set a date for the future; pick repeating at proper interval if needed.

3.     Check a box labelled something like “affect budget early” or “commit.”

4.     Set an interval for how early (days before/date) the commitment will take place.  Default for non-repeating should be “today.”

5.     Fill out the rest of the payee/category/amount info and save.

6.     Transaction looks like a regular scheduled transaction, using the date of occurrence, except it’s colored instead of greyed out, and has the checked calendar icon by the date.

7.     Transaction appears in the category’s activity box, colored, italicized, and iconed.

8.     Watch and see the category available decrease by the amount of the transaction on the date of commitment (most likely today).

9.     Make good choices!

Committing a Scheduled Transaction

1.     Select the desired transaction.

2.     Right click/”Edit” then choose “commit now.”

3.     Transaction becomes highlighted (it was already italicized) with an icon (checked calendar) by the date.

4.     Transaction appears in the activity box of the effected budget category.

5.     Appropriate amount is decreased in category available balance (and made available for CC payment if applicable.

Developers Would Need

Make an indicator to initiate the committed date information-gathering-box.  The idea I can think of is a little check box between the date and the payee, which opens a box much like the date calendar box.  For space, the committed date should probably appear directly below the actual date in the transaction line.  There’s blank blue space there, and no reason to have both drop-downs open simultaneously.

Decide how the committed transactions will appear in the account register and activity box.  I think looking like a pending transaction (greyed out, italicized) with the “checked calendar icon” {mentioned above} by the date, and the whole line changing highlight color (blue? my choice. purple? won’t blend in with the background themes.  yellow? stands out, but these really don’t need action, so that would send the wrong message.  green? well, they haven’t happened yet, so I hesitate, but it’s my second choice) would be good.  You get color and non-color indicators there… J

If you want to make it really elegant, be able to select multiple transactions and “commit now” (maybe the paycheck came in early and the budgeting session got moved up!).  But, I think group things like that are a different feature request that would dovetail nicely, but is not required to implement Future Committed Transactions.

Use Case, so we have context.

Here are three scenarios.  There are many others from other people:

1.     You have a box of clothes that you pay for every month or so.  You want to commit that transaction so the available is $100 budgeted -$30 committed = $70 available. This way, the clothes buyer doesn’t check the available balance in clothes (like they’re supposed to) and spend the full $100 at the mall.

2.     You have Netflix or some other subscription entertainment service.  You don’t want to have a category for Netflix and a category for entertainment because you’re trying to avoid category bloat.  Commit the Netflix fee and feel free to spend the rest of your entertainment money on spontaneous entertainment.  There’s no overspending on the Netflix later, because it was accounted for (literally, in the category).

3.    You have a meal delivery service (you know the kind where they individually package pre-measured ingredients with recipe/technique cards so you can cook without research, planning, prep, or active shopping?).  The payment will be made on the 25th for $100, but you did your budget meeting on the 5th when you got paid for the month.  The meal service is delivering groceries, so its charge should come from the Grocery category.  When you go to the grocery store for other things, you don’t want to think the full $500 is available to spend, because only $400 is really available.  This information is especially important on the 24th when you’re at the grocery store and have already spent $350.  Looking at the inspector on the phone requires several clicks, none of which will happen if you forgot entirely about the delivery and have no reason to check.  The orange pill is not a reason to check, in case you’re wondering – most of my pills are orange throughout the month because of needing the paycheck on the 31st to fill the goal, or WAMing.  Having a future transaction that impacts the budget intentionally could be the difference between overspending or not (sure, if overspending happens for various reasons, you pick yourself up and move on, no shame.  HOWEVER, if you’re actively trying to not overspend, and you look at your category balance to verify that you can get the jar of chocolate spread, it should tell you the useful number of NO, unless you don’t want to fund the oil change), and it’s the app’s job to tell you what is available.

Why YNAB? Because the philosophy is the power, the software is the tool.

The purpose of YNAB is to provide financial awareness through its budgeting app, which supports the 4 Rules of YNAB’s methodology, right?  Future Committed Transactions reflect the reality of giving dollars jobs as well as using dollars in their given jobs.  They allow members of the same budget to communicate more effectively about their priorities and decisions.

Without them, to have the same budget effect, the user would have to create separate categories for all of these transactions.  That way, the initial budget plan would take care of them and provide a separate category for “the rest of the category’s available money.”  This creates noise and clutter on the budget screen and in the reports. 

If the major resistance to implementing this feature is to prevent users from allowing income to affect the budget prematurely, then make the checkbox greyed out if the money is in the inflow or the category is TBB.  I know this is possible, because the category gets greyed out when the payee is a transfer.

People who want to game the system have already come up with multiple ways to change the date of paychecks so that they can budget the money before they have it.  Why prevent everyone else from making good decisions just so a few have to do the same or similar thing to violate the method?

Importance, because not everything can actually be prioritized as ‘critical’

This is important to me because I implement a few workarounds to gain this effect, and I also know this feature will calm my dad, with whom I would like to share the method.  He will appreciate knowing that certain types of planned transactions are not lost in the budget until they occur, but instead are accurately interacting with and impacting the budget available categories, thus informing spending decisions.

Banners in Web App

Explanation

I thought through this while I was working through the SFTF Fix.  It is not as important as I first thought, but I am posting it so that others understand why I think it has less importance.

Please incorporate the banner for overspending in the web app like it is in the mobile.  It’s useful and easy to use there – great job!  Have a similar one for overbudgeting.  While you’re at it, put one at the top of the accounts page for transactions that need approval/categorization.  Sounds easy to me, but I’m not a developer!

User Workflow Steps

Overspending Banner --> Nice to have.

1.     Overspend.  Know or not know about it.

2.     See the banner at the top (blue in mobile app) and click on it.

3.     See isolated, overspent categories, and click on one.

4.     Use the activated Move Money Tool to rearrange the budget.

5.     Banner goes away with whatever congratulatory remark you like.

Overbudgeting Banner –> Totally redundant and unnecessary.  Not Needed.

1.     Overbudget.

2.     See the banner at the top (red in mobile app).

3.     See negative TBB.*

4.     Use the activated MoveMoneyTool to rearrange the budget.  Or manual entry, for that matter, because we’re looking at the TBB.

5.     TBB turns into 0.

*Well, here’s a problem.  You should never need this banner because the TBB is always at the top, and red if negative.  If you fix SFTF, the most you would have to do to get this is a massive color change when overbudgeting remains (after the warning and choice boxes have deployed, of course).

Account Activity Banner --> Nice to have.

1.     Have transactions that need approval/categorization.

2.     See the banner at the top (maybe green?), and click.

3.     See isolated transactions that need attention.

4.     Be able to group all/some and approve/categorize.  Or you could implement the banner without

Developers Would Need to

Talk to the mobile people to share design ideas.  But really, just fix SFTF.  Then think about banners.

Use Case

It’s very easy to find overspent categories on the mobile app because there’s a banner at the top that tells you how many categories are overspent.  When you click on it, it takes you to a page that only shows those categories.  A click on the overspent category then activates the Move Money Tool.  Incorporating the banner on the web can provide that easy workflow.  This can only help user experience, which will result in more optimized financial decisions.

Why YNAB? Because the philosophy is the power, the software is the tool.

The banners could help people not spend dollars they don’t have by focusing on only actionable data when trying to rectify overspending or bring accounts up to date.

Importance, because not everything can actually be prioritized as ‘critical’

Nice to have, but don’t spend time on the “Overbudgeted Banner.” You already have the TBB.  Use it.